December 15, 1921] 



NATURE 



493 



existing plant it gives one food for considerable 

 thought. 



The success of Edgewood Arsenal and the gas 

 mask factories was due in no small measure to 

 the inauguration of a development division inter- 

 mediate between the Research Department and 

 the manufacturing plants. The difficulties attend- 

 ing large-scale production were overcome in the 

 single-unit plants of the development section, and 

 the results obtained immediately transferred to 

 Edgewood and the subsidiary factories spread up 

 and down the countn.'. Only in this way was it 

 possible to maintain throughput at its maximum 

 and avoid the time- and labour-consuming hind- 

 rances notoriously attendant on the alteration of 

 existing plant or the installation of new. It is a 

 procedure heartilv to be commended to many of 

 our own industrial concerns, where much good 

 research is wasted by inability of the works to 

 cope with difficulties which could well be overcome 

 bv experimentation on full-sized units. 



Of course, even in America, the enormous 

 iaemical warfare organisation did not come into 

 being without attendant inefficiencies. General 

 Fries points out the difficulties he encountered in 

 having-.his cabled demands from the Expeditionary 

 Force attended to (did he but know it, he was no 

 worse off in this way than the British, who were 

 fighting almost at their own door). This was due 

 to a lack of co-ordination between the numerous 

 extensrve divisions of the ser\ice, each of which 

 had gro\\*n up separately. Eventually a Chief of 

 the Chemical Warfare Service was appointed, but 

 in the interim the various separate activities were 

 held together only by the personal efforts of 

 William H. Walker, of the Massachusetts In- 

 stitute of Technology. General Fries and Major 

 West are not sufficiently appreciative of Walker's 

 efforts during this disquieting period. In service 

 to his country Walker accomplished in this un- 

 official co-ordination something even greater than 

 his subsequent organisation and control of Edge- 

 wood Arsenal. Without him General Fries and 

 he American Expeditionary Force would have 

 ud to remain dependent for supplies on Britain 

 nr many months longer than they did. 

 The .book is full of information of a technical 

 ature previously denied to the average man of 

 science, and even without its clarity and illumin- 

 ating illustrations would hold the reader enthralled 

 from start to finish. It is a fine compilation and a 

 great tribute to Am.erican chemists. Its publica- 

 tion can do nothing but good in throwing light on 

 i subject of ever-increasing international import- 

 ance. Its extensive sections, dealing with the 

 I legitimacy of gas warfare and its possibilities in 

 NO. 2720, VOL. 108] 



the future, are highly stimulating, but must be 

 read in conjunction with the remainder properh' 

 to be appreciated. Sufficient has been quoted 

 above to indicate the authors' views on the 

 subject. 



No British notice of "Chemical Warfare " would 

 be complete without reference to the now notori- 

 ous "Lewisite." Whatever the British views as 

 to the war value of chlorovinyldichloroarsine, the 

 fact remains that the Americans rated, and still 

 rate, it very highly indeed. It was under the 

 strictest pledges of official secrecy that its nature 

 and mode of preparation were imparted to the 

 British Government. It is therefore most disquiet- 

 ing to find it made the subject of a communica- 

 tion to a scientific society without express per- 

 mission being obtained from the real owners of 

 the secret. As the communication was sanctioned 

 by the War Office, there would appear to be two 

 explanations required — one from the military 

 authorities, and the other from the authors of the 

 paper referred to. Doubtless some satisfactor\' 

 explanation can be given of this "unfortunate, or 

 otherwise " (Fries and West), occurrence, but the 

 Official Secrets Act, our friendly relations with 

 foreign Governments, and respected procedure 

 regarding scientific publication, all appear to be 

 involved. S. J. M. A. 



Zoology for Medical Students. 

 Zoology for Medical Students. By Prof. 

 J. Graham Kerr. Pp. x-f-485. (London: 

 Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 25s. net. 



SUCH a title challenges attention not merely 

 as a scientific work but as a confession of 

 faith. It is the credo of one of our younger 

 men on education at this moment when there is 

 nothing else of such importance. A huge and 

 undigested heap of students has been shovelled 

 into our universities by the combined pressure of 

 war arrears and Government subsidies (8,000, oooi. 

 sterling is to be spent first and last by the 

 Treasury alone on University courses for ex-offi- 

 cers). These mc are our inevitable masters in 

 the decade to come. Thus vital are the principles 

 on which Prof. Graham Kerr decides to cultivate 

 his garden. 



The professor of zoology in Scotland has a 

 dreadful task. In ten short weeks he has to 

 expound and classify all the innumerable com- 

 binations of living matter. In addition he has 

 to break in to the life of a university a class of 

 many scores^ — sometimes of hundreds — of last 

 year's secondary schoolboys. The biology of the 

 first-vear medical student has to unfold its 



